pot pourri

 This is my entry for challenge 7 at Chocolate Baroque - I just never got around to the last few, so one of my resolutions was to try harder to keep up with the challenge blogs.............it did help that this time included my favourite colour scheme!
It also helped that the colour scheme for the pot pourri challenge on the Chocolate Baroque ning site was caramel, which I interpreted rather liberally, and this card began life as a possible for that challenge.
I used russet card as a base, and stamped the text and foliage stamps in the background using a colorbox amber clay inkpad that I found lurking in a drawer.The main image was overstamped in impress autumn leaf ink, and the edges of the card sponged with impress chocolate ink (more refugees from the drawer).
The image was coloured  with a waterbrush to draw the ink in from the image, then used watercolour pencil on the stems and leaves.  I stamped the poppy heads a second time, used the waterbrush again, then added derwent watercolour pencils to give them more definition - this was cut out and glued over the original image. I stamped the butterfly on white card and painted the wings with H2Os before cutting them out and glueing on.
Matts are dark brown, gold and green, and the base card was stamped with the text stamp in amber clay and sponged with chocolate.










The other images are are of  the postcards that actually went for the pot pourri challenge, and I just barely scraped in at the last minute.  I don't know what it is about January, but it always seems to go by in a flash almost as soon as I realise it has arrived - must be an age thing!
The first one used the window stamp from gothic fragments as the background, and stamped and decoupaged poppy heads - the bottom two poppies actually overhang the card, but don't seem to have come out on the scan.
The second one uses the same stamps and technique as the card apart from the fact that the poppies are stamped directly onto the card over the text stamp. the butterfly was just watercoloured with distress ink in broken china after stamping onto white card.

catching up

This is a catch-up post, as  I have been very much AWOL during the last month.
 OH was rushed into hospital at the beginning of December and has been in and out ever since - he's currently out, awaiting call for an op sometime in the immediate future. Practically anything technological that could go wrong did at the same time, including the phone line and broadband - all hopefully now fixed, together with a new mobile to replace the one that leapt out of my pocket...........
The first scan is of the covers for the
 Chocolate Baroque technique tags book. I have to admit that I didn't do new tags for this, just resurrected earlier tags that I didn't use at the time they were made - the top will be the cover, and  the words from artistic affirmations were resist stamped using versamark and white embossing powder before inking the sky and stamping the foliage.
The back cover used a Tim Holtz embossing folder, tag background sponged with distress inks before inking the embossed image with versamark and gold embossing powder once the background was completely dry - the result if it isn't dry can be  quite interesting, but is usually just a mess!
 The cards were made yesterday at a workshop in Gissing with Moira, the first time I had picked up an inkpad with crafty intentions for weeks - it was a lovely day, and a really nice change.
The stamps used are all by Hobby Art, most of them Moira's - if she hasn't got the complete set, I shall be very surprised!- and the cards are all cream and 14.5cm square.
 The butterflies were stamped on acetate with stazon, which was then coloured with alcohol inks on the reverse side and left to dry before cutting out. I used the solid flowers set to stamp the background,using victorian velvet and milled lavender distress inks , then stamped the butterflies fairly randomly across the card. The acetate butterflies were cut out and glued over the stamped images. Matts are matt gold and the nearest pink I could find to match the stamping.

The background for the last card used repeat stamping of a script stamp and a sort-of sacking effect stamp using old paper and antique linen distress inks. The words were stamped in black memento ink, then the small spray from falling leaves stamped round four times to make a wreath using bundled sage. I regretted using this stamp as I then had to colour in the leaves with promarker as they didn't stand out enough from the background.
The maple leaves were stamped with memento london fog - guess who picked up the wrong dewdrop pad without looking first - coloured with promarkers using big slashes of colour with the broad tip and then some blending pen before  cutting out and mounting with foam pads. The matts are dull gold and an orange that matched the promarker colour.

karisma pencils

Got distracted last night - was meant to be mass-producing Christmas cards with my new stamps from Chocolate Baroque and Hobby Art (couldn't resist the special offers last weekend!) but found a box of Karisma pencils when picking up a heap of crafty stuff that ended up on the floor................. I remembered buying these at the NEC many years ago, but they didn't look as if they had ever been used, and I think they are long discontinued now.
I stamped off some birds n berries and had a play - I wasn't greatly impressed with the first ones I tried (much prefer my watercolour pencils), possibly as there wasn't a lot of colour choices in what was admittedly a smallish box.
Then I had an idea - to try using just the black and red pencils, so this is the result. The birds haven't landed on the holly properly, but it was ok as a trial run. I was much happier with this version, and will probably try it again with the watercolour pencils or promarkers, as I think it will make a nice card done properly!

p p p pick up a penguin

After the WI meeting, I had several stamped Hobby Art penguins over - quite a few of the older members were unable to come to the meeting -  so rather than waste them I decided to make a slider card. I haven't made one of these for quite some time, and this was the first effort - he slides nicely, but doesn't do somersaults, so need to work out why next.
Background was done with distress inks, sponges and the traditional torn paper, and the penguin is attached to 2 pennies with foam pads, one either side of the slit in the card. Did have to make a quick trip to Jane's to get some small round foam pads - they came out of the clearance basket, too!
The card is mounted onto the base with more sticky pads, so the pennies have room to move.

The second card took almost as long in the actual making - the Chocolate Baroque penguins were actually stamped at the same time as the other penguins, but only got coloured in on Wednesday. Background again distress inks, and the mat is some very ancient holographic silver card.
There are a couple of individual penguins and snowmen in this set as well as the stamp I used.
for those quick off the mark, check out the websites, as both Hobby Art and Chocolate Baroque have sale offers  at the moment.

November tags

The technique for this month over at Chocolate Baroque was to use a distress ink background. My bright (?) idea was to try to create a poppy field background - I eventually gave up after almost running out of time and settled for the nearest sort-of ok tags. (Thanks Margaret for waiting for me, and apologies to everyone else that I've held up!)
I used the first poppy stamp without a butterfly that I came across, from poppy meadow, coloured with watercolour pencils
                                                                                                                                                                 





The other tag was my entry for the Hobby Art
November blog challenge -actually, it is the first one they have run - where the theme was remembrance. I did actually finish this a bit ago,  using one of the distress ink backgrounds, but the scanner was playing up, and the broadband has just come back after being out for most of the day.

WI card

 This is the card we made at WI this afternoon, after the excitement (not) of the annual meeting.
It had to be something simple, so I borrowed Moira's Hobby Art penguin stamps - nice big penguins, and very easy to colour in - admittedly not quite so easy to cut out, but no-one moaned about it!
I had two versions, one with the penguins on a thread to twizzle round, and one using acetate - everyone managed to do the thread version. We did use smaller A6 cards, as I could get those in trifold, so easier to die cut matching holes, and they didn't get the snowflakes, or the brusho lining - I did print out a snowflake backing paper from the Artylicious Seasons greeting cd for them though (now on special offer)

They had a choice of white or blue base cards and round or fancy oval apertures, and I stamped out the penguins in advance, as we only had about 30 minutes to do the cards in. It was very peaceful when they were busy colouring in!









This was the acetate sample card, still had the reverse of the penguin inside, just quicker to do

Gissing Sunday

 A happy afternoon with Moira and Janet at Gissing yesterday - especially so as I hadn't been able to touch my craft stuff since the Clarity workshop last month, due to daughter reclaiming her old bedroom temporarily. There was a benefit in that everything was already packed up and ready to go..........
It took a long time to do the first card, using some of Moira's favourite Hobby Art stamps, as everyone wanted to use the farmhouse stamp, so we had to wait patiently for our turn. I did manage to stamp out loads of penguins while I waited ready for the WI meeting next week, when we will be making Christmas cards, so didn't mind being last in the queue! (thanks for the stamps, Moira).
Everything was stamped with versafine, coloured with a mix of distress inks and watercolour pencils - the sky was brayered with broken china and stormy sky inks, the sprinkled with a mix of glitter and white embossing powder to give a snowy effect , which doesn't really show up on the scan.

Janet's quick card really was just that - same two inks brushed through a circle mask before stamping the Clarity santa and sleigh and the greeting across the circle. Two  snowflake stamps in the corners and on the edges of the base card, and a quick brush of ink round the edges and that was it! There is a little bit of clear glitter on the tree and the snowflakes, which again isn't obvious on the scan.
Just need to sort everything out now and put it all back before I can get back to playing work again....